Queen (StarCraft II)
The queen 2011-10-22, BlizzCon 2011 - Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm - Campaign and Lore Panel (Full). YouTube, accessed on 2011-11-07 is a zerg support unit that appears in StarCraft II. Despite a shared name, it is a vastly different unit from its predecessor, most notably in that it no longer flies. Overview The creation of this breed of queen was carried out at the behest of the Queen of Blades, in order to safeguard the future of the Swarm and act as its hive-masters. The queens came into use after the Brood War,Blizzard Entertainment staff. 2014-08-14. Units: Queen. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2014-08-14. in use as early as 2501.Barba, Rick. StarCraft Field Manual (hardcover). Insight Editions, November 17, 2015. Abathur altered the essence of an older breed of queenBlizzard Entertainment. Heroes of the Storm (Blizzard Entertainment) (in English). June 2, 2015, and ultimately from the Arachnis brood-keeper, suppressing their ability to fly in order to improve their abilities to take care of the hive. Psychology Queens are sapient beings.2011-06-15, Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm video preview. Atomic, accessed on 2011-07-08 The queen's brain is encased in an armored skull, and connected to a set of nerve cords that bear resemblance to those possessed by protoss. The queen's brain gives it great mental capabilities, but these queens have severe limits to their mental flexibility (unlike broodmothers),Blizzard Entertainment. 2012-11-26. StarCraft II Creative Development Q&A - Part 6. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2012-11-26. and have limited independent thought, analysis, and sapience. They play a limited command role in nurturing zerg nest sites. In leadership roles, they oversee hives and easily coordinate lesser strains.Overview: Zerg, accessed on 2011-01-13 Queens can evolve and grow through experience, and can analyze and relay any tactical data fed to them by overlords. Queens generally can't communicate verbally, but have been observed to converse with other species psionically.Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Mission: Retaliation (in English). 2016-06-20. They are as able to hear, process and understand terran speech.Zahn, Timothy (November 8, 2016). StarCraft: Evolution. Del Rey Books. ISBN 0425284735. Queens have an ingrained matronly instinct, that even deep neurological restructuring is unable to eliminate. Physiology These queens are tougher than their predecessors, including an armored skull. At full height, they are roughly 1.5 times as tall as a terran wearing CMC armor. The new morphology of these queens hints at the incorporation of terran or protoss DNA, or perhaps even the zerg-altered genes of the Queen of Blades herself. Such evolution implied a widespread change occurred within the zerg hierarchy, a redistribution of power making them more difficult to combat. When terrans first saw this queen, the universal reaction was that someone had taken a centaur from human legend, replaced the torso with a section of a centipede, and replaced the lower, equine part with a giant crab.Zahn, Timothy (November 8, 2016). StarCraft: Evolution. Del Rey Books. ISBN 0425284735. Abilities The egg-laying abilities of the Arachnis brood-keeper was revised and altered for these queens to allow them to produce living globs of tissue, which adhere to creep and accelerate its growth. These globs are deposited via their ovipositor, mutated from the one possessed by the Arachnis brood keeper. These queens also produce a thick, protein-based substance that stimulates cellular growth, achieved via mitotic enzymes, which they are able to expel in liquid form. When a queen covers the wounds of a zerg organism (structural or otherwise) with this reddish fluid, the damaged tissue regenerates in a matter of seconds. Conversely, if the fluid is combined with a catalyst secreted by a gland located on the queen's neck (which gives it a sickly green coloration), and forcefully injects it into a hatchery, larvae will be incubated more rapidly. Like all ground-based zerg strains, queens move faster across creep than normal ground. However, their legs are designed so that their movement is impaired when crossing non-creep covered areas; they 'skate' over creep, which, per the design of said legs, makes crossing over normal terrain more difficult. Dominion scientists have speculated that this is to keep more intelligent queens within the vicinity of a hive and reduce the incentive for them to wander off on their own. Queens have the advanced ability to manipulate their "offspring"; for instance, by 2503,September 27, 2011. "Timeline." StarCraft: Ghost: Spectres. Simon & Schuster (Pocket Star). pp. 393-416. ISBN 978-1439-10938-0. they engineered the zergling morph to the baneling, a breed that can contain its explosive energies until just the right moment.2008-05-23. Baneling. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2008-05-23. They have also been tasked with the spawning of numerous cocoons.Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Mission: Wings of Liberty, Belly of the Beast (in English). 2010-07-27. These queens are equipped with acid spines as projectile weapons, and claws that can be used in melee situations. They can also lob spores at their enemies.Elder, Josh (w), Ramanda Kamarga (p). "Why We Fight." In StarCraft: Frontline: Volume 1 (paperback binding), pp. 6–47. Tokyopop, August 1, 2008. ISBN 978-1427-80721-2. However, their biological weaponry is mainly used to defend hive clusters. The queens of the Leviathan Brood are incredibly vicious and hostile. Any creatures foolish enough to approach their clutch with hostile intent may find themselves quickly impaled by many spines. Primal zerg have also adopted queens, though the brutal nature of primal packs meant queens fill a very different role from the Swarm counterparts. Queens enslaved by the Cerberus Program would defend their brood's backline and were upgraded with forged titanium blades and jet-powered spine launchers.Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void. Collections Tab: Skins. July 19, 2017 Game Unit |image=Queen SC2 Head2.jpg |imgsize=200px |imgdesc= |image2=Queen SC2 DevRend2.jpg |imgsize2=200px |imgdesc2= |race=Zerg |faction= Zerg Swarm |campname= |baseunit= |role=Hive warden |useguns=*Claws *Acid spines |usearmor= |energy=200 (init. 25) |engyregen=0.5625 |timedlife= |size= |type=*Biological *Ground *Psionic |armortype= |transcapacity= |transsize=2 |sight=9 |detect= |broodling= |costmin=150 |energycost= |costgas= |supply=2 1 (Co-op Missions Zagara) |campcost= |time=36 50 (Co-op Missions) |produced=Hatchery/Lair/Hive |parent= |evolvesfrom= |req=Spawning pool |hotkey=Q |speed=1.31 (Versus) 0.94 (Co-op) |accel=1000 |lataccel=46 |decel=0 |creepbonus= |creepmultiplier=x2.7 x2.65 (Co-op) |collision=0.875 |shield= |shieldregen= |hp=175 |hpregen=0.2734 |armor=1 |gun1name=Claws |gun1strength=4 (Versus) 4 (+2 vs Armored) (Co-op) |gun1attacks=2 |gun1ground=x |gun1air= |gun1cool=0.71 (Versus) 1 (Co-op) |gun1range=5 |gun1upgrd=+1 |gun2name=Acid spines |gun2strength=9 |gun2attacks= |gun2ground= |gun2air=x |gun2cool=0.71 1 (Co-op) |gun2range=8 |gun2upgrd=+1 |addons= |evolvesto= |produce= |allows= |research= |ability= |priority=20 |killscore=300 |makescore=150 |lostscore= |notes= |structure= |hero= |campaign= |npc= |cancel= |nocat= |concatbott= |concattop= }} The queen is a ground unit with an attack consisting of spines launched by the "wings" on its back. The queen emerges directly from the hatchery (meaning it is not morphed from a larva but walks out of the hatchery) and requires a spawning pool. You cannot set a rally point for your queen, they always spawn directly next to the hatchery in available space. Queens are strong against hellions, s, and void rays, but are weak against s, s, and s. A 1:1 ratio of queens to hatcheries will allow the hatcheries to continually produce additional larvae assuming perfect timing of inject larva, though the queen would not be able to generate an energy surplus for other abilities in such a case. Building excess queens in lieu of or in conjunction with ground units and spine crawlers is a frequent early defense option due to the queen's ability to block small ramps, attack air units, heal with transfusion and later spread creep tumors or relocate to an expansion for larva injection in the mid-game. In addition the queen's lack of an armor type means that few units deal bonus damage to the queen, making her an excellent all-around tanking unit. The queen's movement speed bonus from creep is much larger than other zerg units, making it especially slow when off of creep, but is fairly quick when on creep. Blizzard considers Spawn Larva to be harder to use than other race-specific macro mechanics, but believes this balances the easier unit production management.David Kim. 2011-12-15. Q & A With David Kim. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2012-01-26. The queen portrait is unlocked when earning the Solo Zerg 250 achievement. Versus ;Upgrades and Abilities Legacy of the Void The queen from StarCraft re-appears in Legacy of the Void. Co-op Missions Kerrigan and Zagara have the ability to spawn queens in Co-op Missions. Abathur has the ability to spawn swarm queens. Stukov has the ability to spawn classic brood queens, which function similar to their StarCraft counterpart. At Level 3, Zagara gains the ability for queens to spawn eight larva instead of four. ;Kerrigan Upgrades and Abilities ;Zagara Upgrades and Abilities Development Achievements Known Queens *Char queen (unique) *Mukav Broodmothers *Kilysa *Nafash *Naktul *Niadra *Rokarr *Ryloth *Zagara Variants *Broodmother (sapient brood leader) *Larval queen (cut content) *Swarm queen Notes *Queens have demonstrated the ability to speak in-game as the zerg adviser.Zarhym. 2010-03-12. #BlizzChat Developer Chat on Twitter – 3/12 (page 2). Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2010-03-13. A queen speaks in the For the Swarm challenge.Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Challenge: Wings of Liberty, For the Swarm (in English). 2010-07-27. They are voiced by Nika Futterman.Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Credits. (in English). 2010. The actual units, however, only let out shrieks. *Artwork from Last Call''Randolph, Grace (w), Seung-hui Kye (p, i). "Last Call." In ''StarCraft: Frontline: Volume 3 (paperback binding), pp. 90-131. Tokyopop, July 14, 2009. ISBN 978-1427-80832-5. and the second volume of StarCraft: Ghost Academy''Randolph, Grace (w), Seung-hui Kye (p, i). "Last Call." In ''StarCraft: Frontline: Volume 3 (paperback binding), pp. 90-131. Tokyopop, July 14, 2009. ISBN 978-1427-80832-5. depicts modern queens in use before the end of the Brood War. This contradicts site info which establishes that these queens did not come into use until after the conflict. *A skater skirt prominently featuring a queen is available for purchase on the Battle.net store.2017-07-08, StarCraft II Skater Skirt. Battle.net, accessed on 2017-07-08 Images ;Skins File:NormalQueen SC2SkinImage.jpg|A queen File:LeviathanQueen SC2SkinImage.jpg|Leviathan Brood queen File:PrimalQueen SC2SkinImage.jpg|Primal zerg queen File:SimulantQueen Skin Game1.jpg|Simulant queen File:CerberusQueen SC2SkinImage.JPG|Cerberus queen ;Portraits File:Queen SC2-LotV Head3.jpg|Leviathan Brood queen portrait File:Queen SC2-LotV Head4.jpg|Primal zerg queen portrait File:Queen SC2-LotV Head5.jpg|Simulant queen portrait File:CerberusQueenPortrait SC2SkinImage.jpg|Cerberus queen portrait References Category:Swarm zerg breeds Category:Announcers